It's the last day of August, officially the end of the Hollywood summer movie season. Like most summers, this was another year of big budget popcorn flicks that drew in both big bucks and big critical backlash. I could care less about all that stuff. To me, the summer is just like any other season, only with more knucklehead kids taking up space at the concession stand. Hollywood fudges their summer movie schedule a bit in order to inflate their numbers, even going so far in some cases as to include April(!!!) films to the tally, but for my purposes here I'm only workin' with June through August. I saw 37 movies during that period, which seems a bit low to me but I'm sure I spent the remainder of my time doing something constructive like playing Lost Odyssey and re-reading The Walking Dead in it's entirety.
This is sortof a wrap up to the summer and a bit of a kickoff to a new column I'll be doing every couple of weeks. I'll be counting down my Top 5 Films based on a certain category usually associated with the new releases coming out that week. So for instance, Gamer comes out this week so I might do my Top 5 Video Game movies. Get it? But today I'm recounting my Top 5 Films of what I think was another great summer in cinema.
5. District 9
The opening spots for District 9 left me unimpressed and underwhelmed. A space ship floating over a desert. Awesome. Then as I began to hear and see more of this delightfully rich and thoughtful sci-fi actioner, I got sucked in by it's potential. Little did I know that Neil Blomkamp and Peter Jackson's film would more than exceed my expectations, it took my expectations and shoved 'em into the locker. District 9 combines jaw dropping photo realistic special effects with a story that manages to be both thought provoking and edge of your seat entertaining. It's a testament to how good this summer's been when a film as good as this only ranks 5th on my list.
4. Inglorious Basterds
I feel like I haven't given this film it's due. Re-reading my own review, perhaps I was too harsh and didn't really get across just how much I love this movie. Tarantino's war film mixed with a spaghetti western is the sort of big idea event that I've come to expect. Every line of dialogue in this movie works. Every scene hits it right on the head. Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine is arguably the best character Tarantino's ever created. The film might not have been what I was expecting going in, but what I got was pretty damn great just the same.
3. The Hurt Locker
I'd been hearing the praise for weeks: "Best war film since Saving Private Ryan!", "Best Iraq War movie ever!" None of it is hyperbole. There are few movie experiences as visceral and thrilling as The Hurt Locker, Kathry Bigelow's searing look into brutal world of a reckless EOD technician. There's not a single moment in this movie where the tension lets up. Every second it feels like something's about to explode, whether they're on the battlefield or not. If Jeremy Renner doesn't get nominated for his turn as adrenaline junkie Sgt. William James, it'll be a travesty.
2. Thirst
You can say what you want about Rob Zombie or Platinum Dunes or whoever, Park Chan-Wook has made the only horror movie that mattered this summer. Thirst is a vampire movie that dares to be something different. Sickeningly disgusting at times, but also deep in it's characterizations of a priest who finds his entire belief system shattered when he's accidentally transformed into an undead blood sucker. Chan-Wook combines horror, drama, and a surprising level of dark comedy perfectly to make a nearly flawless film and a return to form for vampires as a whole.
1. (500) Days of Summer
It should come as no surprise what my favorite film of the summer, and of the year is right now. I've praised this movie to the point where I'm starting to get royalty checks from Fox Searchlight. I think you can buy refrigerator magnets with my face on 'em from their website right now. Starring probably my two favorite actors on the planet right now and throwing the typical love story tropes clear out the window, 500 Days is the most honest take on love..not necessarily being in love...that I've seen since...High Fidelity. Yes, High Fidelity. Both of these movies are films for guys, and the crazy lopsided ways we look at the women in our lives especially after they've kicked us to the curb. Combine that with an awesome soundtrack and unique music video-style presentation and you've got a movie that's knockin' on the door of being in my all-time Top 10.
Honorable Mentions: Tetro, The Hangover, In the Loop, A Perfect Getaway, and The Cove all could've made this list.
Worst Film of the summer? Year One. Never have I wanted to hurl Swedish Fish at the screen more than I did during this laugh free prehistoric pile of crap.
